World News Quick Take

Agencies

CHINA

Dad tried to kill daughter

A court has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for trying to kill his baby daughter by inserting sewing needles into her body, state media reported yesterday. A court in Heilongjiang Province found Yin Zhihe (殷志賀) guilty of attempting to murder his two-month-old daughter in August, Xinhua news agency said. The court found that Yin wanted to kill the child because he believed that she was not his daughter, Xinhua reported. Yin first inserted one needle into the baby’s ribcage on Aug. 4. The next day, the baby’s cries prompted her mother to take the child to hospital, where the needle was found and surgically removed. However, Yin later inserted three more needles in the child’s chest, navel and stomach. The needles were removed in an operation, but had already caused respiratory failure and injuries to the baby’s organs. A DNA test showed that Yin was the girl’s biological father, the report said.

CHINA

Woman, 60, had twins

A woman had twin girls at the age of 60 following in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment after her only child died, making her possibly the oldest person in the country to give birth, state media reported on Tuesday. Sheng Hailin (盛海琳), now 63, lost her first daughter, then in her late 20s, in an accidental gas poisoning case in 2009, the China Daily said. A military hospital in the eastern city of Hefei agreed to give her and her husband IVF therapy, the report said. She gave birth to Zhizhi, who weighed 1.85kg, and Huihui, 1.45kg, on May 25, 2010, at the No. 105 Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army, the paper said.

EGYPT

Former PM arrested

Security forces on Tuesday arrested the former prime minister of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi who was sentenced to one year in jail for failing to implement a court ruling to renationalize a textile firm. “Security forces managed to arrest Hisham Kandil, former prime minister, in carrying out a court order issued against him. He was caught in a mountain area with smugglers trying to flee to Sudan,” the Ministry of the Interior said in a statement.

NIGERIA

At least 50 Islamists killed

Troops killed at least 50 suspected Boko Haram Islamists retreating into neighboring Cameroon following a Dec. 20 attack on a military base in the northeastern town of Bama, the army said on Tuesday. Fifteen soldiers and five civilians were killed, and more than 20 vehicles transporting escaping Islamists were destroyed in the battle, Chris Olukolade, defense headquarters spokesman, said yesterday in an e-mailed statement from Abuja, the capital. “Although a good number of the insurgents escaped with bullet wounds while some have been arrested, over 50 of them died in the course of exchange of fire with ground troops in the ongoing operations to apprehend fleeing terrorists,” he said.

IRAQ

Bomb attacks kill 20

At least 20 people were killed in bomb attacks in Christian areas of Baghdad yesterday, including a car bomb that exploded near a church after a Christmas service, police and medics said. A bomb in a parked car went off while worshipers were leaving a church in the Doura district of southern Baghdad after finishing prayers, police sources said. Most of the victims were Christian, they said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.